What Doctors Think
About the Affordable Care Act, that is:
- Nearly two-thirds of doctors expect the quality of care in this country to decline, according to a new survey from Deloitte.
- Seventy percent of doctors believe that long wait times will plague emergency rooms.
- Further, 83 percent of physicians foresee increased wait times for primary care appointments.
- Nearly seven of every 10 doctors believe that medicine is no longer attractive to America’s “best and brightest.”
Thanks to Sally Pipes for the pointer.
I would certainly agree with all the points made in the summary. To the fourth point, I would not encourage a bright young person to go into medicine today, certainly not as a doctor. For the past decade I have tried to make sure those young people I have met know what likely is in their future so they make a more informed decision.
I am beginning to wonder if ‘America’ is the best place for the “best and brightest”. Every year we fall a little more in the Heritage Foundation ranking.
The convoluted way we ration medical care is at the heart of this crisis. If medicine had been allowed to develop in the absence of tax subsidies, excessive regulation and trade association interference, the medical community would be very different today. It would also be much more efficient. People would pay for care directly; health care providers (doctors and hospitals) would compete on price (and quality) and cater to patient needs. The revolution that took place in logistics, retail distribution and other areas of the service industry would have likely taken place in health care delivery as well.
I agree with the doctors.
Excellent points made by Sally Pipes in this article.
I believe basic economics can predict the reduction in quality. Increased demand, both natural (demographics) and artificial (healthcare reform and increased coverage), combined with limited supply (not enough docs/nurses, limited funding) always results in lower quality.
I like the previous comment mentioning logistics… Healthcare delivery, in the inpatient setting, needs to go through a logistical renaissance. Operational efficiency is likely at the heart of the solution to much of the difficulty healthcare faces. I would argue clinical efficiency will likely bring incremental improvements at a time where revolution is needed.